BearingPoint Employee Abducted In Iraq

A British employee of U.S. hi-tech consulting and outsourcing firm BearingPoint was among a group of five Westerners kidnapped from a work site in Iraq, the company confirmed Tuesday.

A spokesman for the company declined to provide the employee's name or other details about the incident.

"We are fully cooperating with local and international authorities to ascertain facts surrounding this incident and are supporting efforts to ensure the employee's safe release," the spokesman said in a statement.

The BearingPoint worker was abducted along with four British security guards employed by Montreal-based GardaWorld.

BearingPoint has been working on economic recovery efforts in Iraq since 2003 under a contract funded by the United States Agency for International Development. The company is also performing similar work in Afghanistan.

In January of 2005, BearingPoint employee Tracy Hushin was killed in the country while working on the USAID contract by insurgents who attacked her convoy.